Politics and views in the United States.

Federal prosecutors threaten protestors who disrupted a MN church service, as others rally nationwide to mark MLK Jr. Day and the first year of Trump's second term. Watchdogs raise concerns on NV's ballot initiative process and NV's vote challenges.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

The Department of Justice will come down hard on anybody who tries to impede or intimidate somebody in a place of worship or a police officer, an ICE officer.

It's just not gonna happen in this administration.

Justice Department advisor, Lena Haba, warns it may prosecute protesters who disrupted a St. Paul church over the weekend.

The protests targeted Pastor David Easterwood, who's also the acting director of the local ICE office.

On Friday, the Justice Department subpoenaed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry, saying they may have obstructed federal law enforcement after the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer.

The White House also put two airborne battalions on standby for a possible deployment to the city.

President Donald Trump says he will not, for the moment, invoke the Insurrection Act that would let him use the active duty troops to enforce civilian law.

The Prime Minister of Norway sent a message to Trump calling for him to back away from tariffs punishing the EU for not supporting a takeover of Greenland.

Trump replied he no longer felt obliged to make peace since Norway didn't give him the Nobel Peace Prize.

The prize is awarded by the Nobel Committee, not the government of Norway.

One year after Trump's second inauguration and just days after Martin Luther King's birthday, people gathered for more than 500 protests around the country.

Catherine Pollack with Engaged Defenders for Democracy says they are fighting for the rule of law and for corporations and billionaires to get out of politics.

We the people are the ones who are giving our power elected officials and they're supposed to represent us.

That's how our government works.

But right now, corporations are dictating how some of our elected officials are voting.

A new coalition of Nebraska voters says state lawmakers are subverting ballot initiatives even after they've passed, weakening voter approved plans for higher minimum wage and paid sick leave.

Dawn Essink, with Respect Nebraska Voters, says they want to make it harder for lawmakers to pass any legislation changing an initiative after it's approved.

She says it's wrong to undermine the will of voters who've successfully used the ballot process.

We've been living with the work really hard, pass the initiative, get it on the ballot, vote for overwhelmingly, and then boom, the legislature, the governor, both decide that they don't like what was passed.

A local effort to challenge voter rules is concerning pro-democracy advocates in Nevada.

The effort, called the Pickpen Project, has a website that says it's training volunteers to use a web-based tool to spot irregularities and inconsistencies in voter registrations.

But Carrie Dermick with the non-profit All Voting is Local says voter challenges are only legal if backed by specific first-hand knowledge not the cyber dragon that Pigpen uses.

Personal knowledge is defined as firsthand knowledge through an experience or observation of facts on the ground under penalty of perjury.

So our concern is what tactics are they using to get that personal knowledge on these challenged voters.

Nevada election officials say the current system already effectively verifies voter eligibility and removes those who have moved or died.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.